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Ask HN: Viability of an anti-AI social movement?

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Ask HN: Viability of an anti-AI social movement?

#1

Post by NO-AI »

Andrej Karpathy (director of artificial intelligence and Autopilot Vision at Tesla) on Twitter today:

  I am cautiously and slightly unnervingly looking forward to the gradual and inevitable unification of language, images/video and audio in foundation models... They will be endowed with agency over originally human APIs: screen+keyboard/mouse in the digital realm and humanoid bodies in the physical realm. And gradually they will swap us out.
I work professionally in the machine learning field. Some of my colleagues and myself are realizing that we're pursuing goals that will reduce the value of human intelligence and creativity, commoditizing them.

Pandora's Box has been opened.

As a society we can reject this technology. Reject automated artwork like Dall-E 2, reject automated literature, and so on. Reject technologies that replace the human mind instead of assisting it.

For example, if we refuse to pay for self-driving taxis on moral grounds (the same way we might refuse to eat factory-farmed chickens) society can make these businesses unprofitable.

In your opinion, would a social movement organized around this idea find traction?

Re: Ask HN: Viability of an anti-AI social movement?

#5

Post by t-3 »

Why? AI is a tool, not even a servant, for that would imply will. We can use and direct it to whatever ends please us. The realization of AI as a general tool for the individual is approaching rapidly, and it will have radically transformative potential. Don't be afraid, push from behind so that progress won't stall in the period where it's only accessible to institutions.

Re: Ask HN: Viability of an anti-AI social movement?

#6

Post by vinaypai »

No. People have been bellyaching about technology replacing humans literally through all of history. Computers, automation, industrial revolution, what have you. Hunter gatherers were probably complaining about how agriculture was going to make people obsolete too.

You can certainly reject whatever you want but don't fool yourself into thinking you're accomplishing anything.

Re: Ask HN: Viability of an anti-AI social movement?

#7

Post by vinaypai »

vinaypai wrote: post #6

No. People have been bellyaching about technology replacing humans literally through all of history. Computers, automation, industrial revolution, what have you. Hunter gatherers were probably complaining about how agriculture was going to make people obsolete too. You can certainly reject whatever you want but don't fool yourself into thinking you're accomplishing anything.

PS: They have also been saying “the last n-1 times we were wrong, but this time is different".

Re: Ask HN: Viability of an anti-AI social movement?

#8

Post by qgin »

> As a society we can reject this technology.

I don't see a lot of precedent for this. I actually can't think of one example where society has rejected a useful technology.

I believe that affluent people will pay more for artisinal/organic/human-created things. But the majority of the world without disposable income will choose cheaper over human. Even if human-made is better. Especially if AI-made is better.

It's true that AI will replace humans as the most powerful intelligence on earth. But it's a wave that there is no plausible way to stop. As long as there are groups that seek to gain economic or military advantage over each other, people will push this technology along. It's as much of an inevitability as any other stage of evolution.

Re: Ask HN: Viability of an anti-AI social movement?

#9

Post by NO-AI »

vinaypai wrote: post #6

No. People have been bellyaching about technology replacing humans literally through all of history. Computers, automation, industrial revolution, what have you. Hunter gatherers were probably complaining about how agriculture was going to make people obsolete too. You can certainly reject whatever you want but don't fool yourself into thinking you're accomplishing anything.

For example, if we as a society refuse to use self-driving cars, we can make the industry unprofitable. Society says, "No, this is not the kind of product we want" and capitalism works to starve the harmful industry.
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